


Time, Energon and Therapy Heals all Wounds

by SetsunaNoroi



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Autobot Megatron, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Relationship(s), Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Plug and Play Sexual Interfacing, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye (IDW), The Transformers: Robots in Disguise (IDW), Unconventional Relationship, Waspinator needs a hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-10-09
Packaged: 2018-04-07 05:41:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4251534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SetsunaNoroi/pseuds/SetsunaNoroi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At least we hope so. Windblade is dealing with guilt from Chromia's plot. Starscream is drowning in hate for Megatron. Waspinator keeps getting caught in issues too big for him, and Megatron wishes he'd stop getting calls from the femme asking to know more about his former SIC. Add that with yet another plot to destroy Cybertron, it's bound to be a rough set of cycles. IDW related</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. If Only I Knew

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been devouring the IDW comics for Transformers lately. I'd followed the More Than Meets the Eye line but nothing much else (drunk, insane robots on a fool's journey is amazingly fun), but the events of Shockwave brought my attention back to the main cast and what's been going on. I'd dropped IDW for about about a year or so and since catching up, I've developed a new favorite in Windblade. Her character is amazing in so many ways and she's a truly unique character, especially in her interactions with Starscream. Seeing a character who doesn't trust him, but is willing to believe in him while still being wary of just how untrustworthy he acts is a nice character for him to be around. Since he lost Megatron, he really needs a good dynamic. After all, the seeker is at his best when showing how he interacts with and manipulates the people around him.
> 
> Writing a story that focuses on Windblade and Starscream working around one another seemed like a fun idea and after brainstorming a few ideas on plots I think I came up with something that could be fun to read. Mostly focusing on the Ores that Shockwave created. I don't know if Windblade was just wrong about Starscream mining Metroplex for the Ores since when she brought it up to him he didn't deny it, but after learning Chromia was responsibly for the blackouts and bombings, she didn't bring the Ores up again. As far as I know it was never addressed further, even though this should still be a concern for the cityspeaker. I figured it would be fun to pick up on.
> 
> This takes place directly after Windblade #1-4. I just read Combiner Wars and I like the idea of the council of other colonies but as those stories are still in the process of being told I don't want to use them. I might have an idea that a later issue might mess with after all. I might however borrow ideas from it later on, like the idea of the forming of said council.
> 
> Despite this story is mostly going to focus on Starscream and Windblade though, this is not a shipping story for the two of them. I like Starscream and Megatron together, and due to the comics I also have developed a fondness for Windblade hooking up with Waspinator. Poor thing needs some affection and she honestly seems to care about him and his well being. Still, I can see the appeal of Starscream/Windblade so if you're a fan give this a read. No, they'll never get together but they are going to grow close in a platonic sense, or as close as Starscream can get to anyone while still acting out as he does.
> 
> That being said, there will be adult themes in this story like "interfacing" and mentions of a homosexual relationship. If this bothers you for any reason, you might not wish to read further. Everyone has preferences and if these bother you I'd rather not offend anyone on accident. Also, as note I do not own Transformers. All this is IDW, Hasbro, and others in the creative team involved. I only do this fic for fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been devouring the IDW comics for Transformers lately. I'd followed the More Than Meets the Eye line but nothing much else (drunk, insane robots on a fool's journey is amazingly fun), but the events of Shockwave brought my attention back to the main cast and what's been going on. I'd dropped IDW for about about a year or so and since catching up, I've developed a new favorite in Windblade. Her character is amazing in so many ways and she's a truly unique character, especially in her interactions with Starscream. Seeing a character who doesn't trust him, but is willing to believe in him while still being wary of just how untrustworthy he acts is a nice character for him to be around. Since he lost Megatron, he really needs a good dynamic. After all, the seeker is at his best when showing how he interacts with and manipulates the people around him.
> 
> Writing a story that focuses on Windblade and Starscream working around one another seemed like a fun idea and after brainstorming a few ideas on plots I think I came up with something that could be fun to read. Mostly focusing on the Ores that Shockwave created. I don't know if Windblade was just wrong about Starscream mining Metroplex for the Ores since when she brought it up to him he didn't deny it, but after learning Chromia was responsibly for the blackouts and bombings, she didn't bring the Ores up again. As far as I know it was never addressed further, even though this should still be a concern for the cityspeaker. I figured it would be fun to pick up on.
> 
> This takes place directly after Windblade #1-4. I just read Combiner Wars and I like the idea of the council of other colonies but as those stories are still in the process of being told I don't want to use them. I might have an idea that a later issue might mess with after all. I might however borrow ideas from it later on, like the idea of the forming of said council.
> 
> Despite this story is mostly going to focus on Starscream and Windblade though, this is not a shipping story for the two of them. I like Starscream and Megatron together, and due to the comics I also have developed a fondness for Windblade hooking up with Waspinator. Poor thing needs some affection and she honestly seems to care about him and his well being. Still, I can see the appeal of Starscream/Windblade so if you're a fan give this a read. No, they'll never get together but they are going to grow close in a platonic sense, or as close as Starscream can get to anyone while still acting out as he does.
> 
> That being said, there will be adult themes in this story like "interfacing" and mentions of a homosexual relationship. If this bothers you for any reason, you might not wish to read further. Everyone has preferences and if these bother you I'd rather not offend anyone on accident. Also, as note I do not own Transformers. All this is IDW, Hasbro, and others in the creative team involved. I only do this fic for fun.

Chapter 1: If Only I Knew

The night on Cybertron felt almost stifling with how warm it was, even hotter to those that were working late. In the brain module of Metroplex, Windblade was moving around as she replaced wires and fuses that were damaged, checked on progress reports on the power levels, made lists of materials she needed for new repairs and prioritized lists of complaints and needs of the citizens of Neo Iacon she'd received that still needed to be addressed. Despite the heat, she moved around at a hurried pace, trying to get as much done as she could as her internal fans worked hard to keep her own systems cool.

The seasons were changing, the weather getting warmer, which was good. If Metroplex didn't have to worry about heating the city, power needs would go down by at least ten percent and maybe fifteen if she was lucky. She hoped the extra energy could go toward healing that the titan desperately needed.

"Are you going to stay up all night again?"

Windblade paused from what she was looking over on a datapad but didn't turn to the source of the voice, usually so strong and firm but now oddly quiet and subdued. She didn't want to face Chromia right now. She hadn't wanted to face her for the last few days, and had used the excuse of staying busy to keep a distance between them. It's not that she wanted to punish her friend but... with what had happened, the bombs... three Cybertronians dead for no reason...

"I have a few things I need to finish up," she answered as she went back to work, taking stock of spare parts she had, not all of them needed. She'd have to see about bartering them off for what she was short on. Maybe if she asked nicely, Swindle could cut her a deal.

"Windblade, you need to recharge," Chromia stated. "You haven't been to your berth for orbital cycles."

"I've been recharging here," she explained. "Too much to-"

"A few measly cycles at your station is not enough to run on! You're going to hurt yourself! I didn't risk everything just for you to work yourself to death for these Cybertronians!"

Her fingers stopped typing out on the datapad before she slowly put it down and turned to face her bodyguard. Despite herself, she couldn't quite lift her helm to look at the other bot, even though she knew she would have seemed more firm if she had.

"That risk you took is exactly why I'm doing this," she explained. "I need... I just need to fix these problems. I can't look like I'm not trying right now. Starscream could rat us out any time he wants. He could always decide to send for another Cityspeaker, one who didn't get tricked into almost killing countless bots just to get back home."

Chromia flinched at the words though Windblade didn't feel all that guilty. She felt used right now and needed her space. She knew it would go away though... eventually... she hoped.

"The best chance we have is to make him happy with my work again. Besides, even if that wasn't true, Metroplex is trying so hard for everyone right now. He needs me."

"One lone Cityspeaker isn't supposed to try to take care of a whole Metrotitan alone. A whole team should be on this."

"I'm the only one here. I'm not about to shirk responsibilities. He's a living being and he's in pain. My recharge schedule is much less important."

"It's not to me."

"Well then, I guess it's a good thing you aren't going to be making decisions based on your priorities anymore."

The second cutting remark did the trick, though this time there was guilt in Windblade's spark. She tried her best to ignore it, even as Chromia looked at her, her expression clearly hurt. The blue bot just lowered her helm before turning around to leave.

"Alright. I'll just... I'll see you in the morning then," she stated. "Please recharge at least a little though."

"I will," the seeker promised, though she didn't honestly know if she'd keep the promise. She should. Her power levels weren't doing well. Most of them were just creeping up on the red, but she wasn't really doing any heavy lifting or anything, just mostly taking stock and getting through backlog. She'd be fine.

She'd certainly faced worse things these last few lunar cycles than a handful of solar cycles without a proper night in her berth.

The Cityspeaker's first experiences with Cybertron had been rocky to say the least. It was a planet torn apart by war, not even fully habitable now, and there were still so many that wanted to continue fighting. It was dangerous a lot of the time and she had already seen her fair share of risks living here than she had most of her life on Caminus. Of course, a planet struggling for peace after recovering from a war she didn't completely understand was bound to have some trouble. Everything she'd heard over her stay, the battles, the companions slain or lost, stretching on for millions of years, it made her wonder how anything had survived at all. All of that though was only a scratch on the surface of something she didn't entirely understand, a side-effect of being an alien to the world.

It was a history that was so old but it was still all new to her. Names that were famous to everyone around here still were unknowns to her and it made her helm spin at times. So many lines drawn, so many causes fought for and lost, only to be revived again and again.

As much as she hated to admit it, she could understand why Chromia has been so desperate to get her away from here.

Not that she could judge or felt she even wanted to. It was not a Cityspeaker's role in existence to take sides or to chose one way over the other. It was important to keep balance and help all life. Of course, it was easier said than done. Not everything could be saved. Caminus itself had problems, a world that might not survive if left dormant. She had left her home in the hopes to save it and had found herself in more danger than she could have ever imagined.

Caminus was hardly perfect, but it was what she was used to. The Way of the Flame taught reverence, balance, and to help all that were in need. It didn't mean it always did so, but through the teachings she'd learned her way of life. While not as religious as she probably should have been, she did have her philosophies and the truths she knew she had to hold onto.

Coming to Cybertron at the end of a war millions of years in the making painted the world in a worse light than it actually was, as well as its people. She believed that in the deepest core of her spark. There were those here that had been hurt badly and who lashed out, but it was not hard to see why. No one here did the things they did without reason. She'd seen into both sides, though admittedly only a little, but she had learned something from both Autobots and Decepticons.

Each one had their belief they were the one hurt in all of this, and that they'd attacked the other side only in retaliation. It wasn't what the Autobots claimed, that all Decepticons were evil monsters, and neither was every Autobot filled with the desire to subjugate everyone around them. At the core, deep down in almost every Cybertronian she met and talked with at any length of time, there was a memory of pain inside of them and the desire for a better world.

The only problem was that everyone seemed to have a different idea what could make the world a better place.

The Cityspeaker wanted to believe no one was evil for the sake of being evil. There was no villain standing on a roof cackling his wicked plans for domination or destruction or whatever other cliché just for fun thing said villain could think of. There was always a belief behind it, a reason for what he or she was doing. She'd seen it in her own bodyguard, in Autobots, and in Decepticons. She'd seen bots hurt and struggling, powerful and dominating, yet all with the same idea.

"I'm not the one at fault here. I did what I had to."

It was terrifying to her that such truths could be so convincing to other transformers. They really saw it so black and white. They did see the other side as that cackling villain that only hurt others just because it was easy.

She'd never believed such senseless monstrosity could exist, that there was always a reason for those actions... but she'd also once believed Chromia would never betray her, and that there were pure souls out there who only wanted to help. She'd seen Optimus Prime let the Decepticon leader who'd started all of this go free, bending rules on technicalities for reasons she couldn't even fathom and she'd done the same by bargaining with Starscream to save her bodyguard, even after she'd murdered three Cybertronians just to convince Windblade to go home.

Her convictions had been so much stronger when she'd first come to Cybertron. Now... she didn't know anymore. She'd heard countless times from the citizens of this planet the ends had been meant to justify the means, and she'd seen what such thinking had led to. To her, finding balance was what was supposed to be right.

Only she hadn't felt like she'd been balancing anything lately. She'd been compromising one principle to ensure the survival of another. What good were the greater morals though when the smaller ones where thrown aside along the way? It was like a house built without foundation, doomed to fall.

Such thoughts had been troubling her a lot these nights. It was enough. She had to do something about it. True, Windblade did not understand everything yet. There were still so many questions that needed answers, problems to fix, and Cybertronians to help. It was a job that had been started so long ago and here she was only at the end. She was only one bot and she certainly knew she couldn't possibly solve it all by herself. She didn't even fully understand it yet. Even those she worked closely with were mysteries to her, but she had to do something. These thoughts plaguing her would eat her alive otherwise.

This war and the fragile peace that had followed was a knot. A million little problems that had long ago turned into a huge mess that needed to be sorted out. One couldn't go straight to the core to fix it all in one fell swoop. Little things had to be taken care of first, problems understood and fixed, cords made free from the snarl as it were.

Windblade had her work cut out for her, that was for sure. She knew for a fact she could never take care of everything. It was too much, but she could start small. She could find a tangled cord and unravel it with a little work. With every tangle the lines would become easier, freeing others around her from this mess they were now trapped in, perhaps those that could help her with all of this. Maybe with enough work and time this problem could be solved head on not by her alone, but by all the Cybertronians who'd been hurt in this long conflict.

To do that though, she needed to help those that could help her. Ironically enough, the one that had struck her as the most powerful to assist to clean up this mess was also the one most caught up in it.

Starscream was a walking mass of complexities and she'd been confused by him before. More often than not it seemed harder to talk to him than it was to talk to Metroplex. A grand titan was complicated, old, and had thoughts that could span the stars and thus were hard to comprehend at times, even to those trained to do so. The leader of Cybertron was much younger and smaller of course, but was every bit as complex. There seemed to be layers around him of bitterness and hate. He was arrogant. He was cruel and conniving. He thought about himself first and foremost.

He'd screamed for the lives of other Cybertronians.

Windblade could have warped the space bridge to her needs so easily. She could have had Metroplex go to her home. Starscream couldn't have stopped her. He'd struggled fruitlessly and begged... but not for himself.

He'd begged for others.

It was that thought she kept coming back to. It was something she couldn't forget or let go of. He was well inside Metroplex right alongside of her. His own life wasn't in danger, neither was his rule. The ones that didn't die would still see him as a leader and he'd be able to easily blame her and Chromia for the deaths that would have resulted in the jump. It would tarnish her and make him look like a defender. It would have gained him so much to just let her do it. Even if he'd been stranded on her planet, he'd still have had so many willing to follow him and suddenly have an excuse to wage war on and try to conquer the new world he wanted anyway.

So why hadn't he just stayed quiet and let her do it? He hadn't known about the other colonies. He hadn't known he still had something to gain from Windblade. She'd told him all that afterward to ensure Chromia's safety and he'd agreed then for his own gain.

At that moment he'd acted for himself but before he'd acted for others.

Everyone she had talked to had told her the same thing, that Starscream only cared for Starscream. Surely he was the most selfish Cybertronian alive. It was the common opinion, right? If everyone thought that though, how did he get chosen to be put in charge? Why had he actually visited her in the hospital when he actually hadn't been the one to attack her? She'd thought he only wanted to gloat, maybe finish the job and yet he'd actually been innocent and she'd been wrong. He could have just wanted to know what was going on but she didn't honestly know anymore because he was just too confusing. It wasn't safe to assume she knew any of his reasoning anymore. So she kept coming back to the important questions, unable to move on from it. What did Starscream really want and how was it he hoped to gain anything when using such horrible methods guaranteed to make enemies?

And why... why had he been concerned for lives that weren't his own when he had nothing to gain from it?

Windblade had once believed in Starscream to an extent. She'd wanted him to be a good leader. It was not from any merits of his own of course. It was because any rightful ruler should care about his land and people. She'd had faith more in an ideal than the bot, but it had still been there. Then when she'd thought he had tried to kill her, she wanted nothing more than to do everything in her power to stop him to save Metroplex. She would have killed him if she'd had a chance, believing him to be a monster.

She felt like she'd walked away from that experience a little wiser. To be honest, she hadn't been right either time. Starscream wasn't a good mech by any stretch of the imagination but he hadn't been responsible either. He'd come to her suspecting her as the one at fault, and he hadn't been far off the mark either.

That's what rubbed her the worst, that in this case he had been completely in the right. He'd been undermined by Chromia, taking the blame for these actions caused by her bodyguard before sweeping it all under the rug, though not very successfully. The official story was it was all maintenance, that the bomb had been just a natural explosion because Metroplex was hurt and such things would happen time to time.

Very few had bought the lie, and Starscream had not enjoyed the attention or bad press it had gotten him. The glares he'd sent her after the press release had made her plating ache uncomfortably. Even her giving a statement with him confirming his story hadn't seemed to sway the public. Not that anyone blamed her. If anything it seemed she was being cast in the sympathetic light, caught under the ruler's thumb and being sabotaged every step of the way.

It wouldn't have surprised her if he'd dropped the whole deal right then and there just to spite her. He didn't seem the type to like taking blame even for things he had done, much less what other bots were responsible for.

She'd scurried home to Metroplex after that and hadn't seen the other seeker since.

It was clear to her that she didn't know the first thing about Starscream. Her predictions about what he wanted and his behavior couldn't have been more off. It made him impossible to predict, and that was a huge problem considering she was going to have to maneuver around him for a long time to get her work done.

Windblade would much rather work with him. She didn't want to have to try and play this game, guessing his moves and trying to sort out which ones would help her and which ones would hinder her. She didn't want to allow some of his schemes to go through while stopping others. Despite her home being a theology, she was no politician. A member of the Way of Flame that ruled over the people, yes, but she'd never been trained for this sort of thing. She wasn't a liar or a schemer. In effect, working against him would be trying to beat him at his own game and she didn't much fancy her odds.

There was already a million ways he could stab her in the back and make it look completely justified. Because... well, it was justified. She'd bought freedom for herself and Chromia by promising him something in return, but it didn't make what had happened any less real.

Without knowing Starscream properly, she didn't have a chance of working either with him or against him. Could she even work with him now? She didn't know.

One thing she did know about him though was that he was troubled. He surrounded himself with people he couldn't trust yet seemed to constantly be looking for the next betrayal. It was like he was painting a target on his back before snarling at anyone who came close without even knowing if there was a dagger or actual help was in store for him. She didn't know entirely why that was but she had her suspicions.

She knew he'd been a part of the war, a large part. Decepticons weren't exactly trustworthy and he'd been in charge of a lot of them. The war hadn't been kind on anyone and he couldn't have been an exception. What had happened to him back then to make him this way?

Windblade wanted to be his ally, despite everything. She had to save Caminus. To save Caminus she had to save Cybertron. To save Cybertron she had to somehow deal with Starscream.

She just didn't know how to pull off that last part.

She looked down at the datapad in her grip and her vents suddenly kicked into overdrive, blowing out the hot air that seemed to be clinging to her just underneath of her armor plating. This was getting her nowhere. It would do her no good just to hide in here and feel guilty over her mistakes. Whatever she did or didn't know about Starscream wasn't going to come together by staying away from him. There was just nothing else for it. She needed to get to know him better. Even if he was the sneaky bastard everyone said he was, at least getting a feel for his patterns would help her along the way of predicting him better. He most certainly wasn't an ally at this point but she didn't relish the thought of having him as an enemy either.

Somehow she had to fix this. It certainly wasn't going to do her any good to just wait around. Every orbital cycle that passed, the space bridge became closer to completion. There was only so much time, even if she were to delay the repairs to that particular part of Metroplex. Something she wasn't willing to risk, given that Starscream would no doubt see it as a break in their deal.

She put the datapad down after saving the progress she'd made and walked out from the room she'd been doing her work in. There was no reason to delay. Maybe Starscream was still working. He seemed to be on call during the entire orbital cycle anyway. With luck she might even catch him in a good mood. It would help, since she didn't know exactly what she was even going to say to him. For now, maybe it might be best just to clear the air.

She'd considered flying but she was so low on reserve energy right now, she didn't want to waste any on flight. Besides, it would be nice to stretch her servos and actually walk. Being cooped up wasn't doing her frame any favors.

Despite the late hour, there were still plenty of other bots up and about. Some greeted her warmly though most just passed her by in the crowds. She smiled and nodded back to them, already feeling a little bit better.

Maccadam's New Oil House was along the way, buzzing with activity as usual. It made her spark ache to think about how much everyone there had helped her, even if it had mostly been for the patrons to get back at Starscream. They'd helped her a lot when she'd asked for it, and it made her feel grateful. Even if she never came to an understanding with the leader of Cybertron at least she knew there were those that did indeed have her back.

A little bit of a commotion right at the door caught her attention. A few bots where there, seeming to be shoving someone out. Her optics widened in surprise when she saw Waspinator fall to the floor, buzzing and doing his best to stay out of the way and not get a rise of those that had pushed him. They all looked ready to start kicking and stomping on him.

"Hey!" she cried out as she rushed over, pushing past the crowd to reach the bots that were looming over him. She didn't know any of them, and there was no Decepticon or Autobot symbol on any of them. Members of NAIL then? It's not like independents hadn't cause trouble before for both sides. "What's going on here? What are you doing to him?"

"Stinking Con snuck over and was drinking out of my energon!" the biggest one snapped. Windblade didn't get too close. He seemed angry and was literally twice her size, not to mention his friends who weren't quite as big as him but much larger than her. "I could have kicked his aft! He's lucky I just brought him out here!"

She was pretty sure the whole reason he'd been brought out here was to abuse the poor thing, but if pretending this bot was graceful enough not to resort to violence would help her settle this without trouble than it was worth it.

"Look, I'm sorry my friend stole some of your energon but it is a bar. Bots get drunk and do unwise things all the time. It's nothing to make a scene over. I'm sure he's sorry, aren't you, Waspinator?" she asked as she looked over her shoulder at him. He'd gotten up from the ground and was now cowering behind her. She didn't know if she should feel honored he thought she could protect him or if he was so desperate any kind of shield would do.

He nodded very quickly, as happy as she was to solve this without violence.

"Wazzpinator very sorry!" he said quickly. "Wazzpinator just loozzze helm. Will never do again, Wazzpinator promizzze. Wazzpinator down on luck and creditzzz. Pleazze don't hurt."

It wasn't clear if the groveling or her reasoning got through to the group, but with a little snort and flex of their plating, they're turned and left. Windblade couldn't help the relief that washed over her. She'd rather not have risked a fight.

"Are you okay, Waspinator?" she asked as she turned around to face him. He looked a little dented and dirty but otherwise fine. Still, she wanted to make sure he hadn't been injured.

"Windbladezzz save Wazzpinator. Just like against blue lady bot," he said in awe.

"Oh, you mean Chromia? Yeah, well luckily those guys were just as willing to listen to me," she said with a small smile. "I'm glad you're okay, but what are you doing stealing energon?"

"Wazzpinator only took a sip. No Shanix to pay for energon, see? Swindle took last bit of money. Wazzpinator thought if sneaky enough, wouldn't get caught."

"I guess I can understand but you shouldn't do things like that," she chastised gently.

"To be fair, Wazzpinator didn't get caught much. That wazzz fifth bot Wazzpinator took drink from," he said, his wings fluttering suddenly as he grinned.

"Oh... well, good for you then?" she replied, a bit confused. She wasn't sure she should have encouraged such things but he looked so proud of himself. It was not something she saw often with him. "Tell you what, are you still hungry?"

"Uh... a bit. Why?"

"I'm heading off to take care of some business, but if you like we can have some energon when I'm done. Why don't you walk with me?" she invited. "I have plenty back home. I don't mind sharing, especially if it will keep you out of trouble."

Waspinator shrunk a bit inside of himself and clasped his claws together, looking around suddenly as if expecting a trap. Of course there wasn't one and after a few minutes of fidgeting he seemed to calm down and nodded.

"Okay. Where Windbladezzz going?" he asked.

"Just to see Starscream," she answered before she saw him tense suddenly. "Don't worry! You can wait outside! I don't think it will take long anyway. I know you don't like him after all."

"Uh... well... uh... gee..." he buzzed a bit, seeming even more frantic than before. "Starzzzcream might want to hurt Wazzpinator. Did fight him after all."

"Well, that was smoothed over. No worries," the seeker assured him. "Of course, if you don't want to than you don't have to. I just thought you'd like the company and a meal."

"Wazzpinator izzz still hungry..." he admitted slowly. "Okay."

"Great. Come on then. I'll try not to take too long," she said, holding out her hand to him. "Shall we go?"

He looked down at her hand and up to her faceplate a few times before he shoved both of his own behind his back and looked away suddenly. She felt confused on what could be the matter, but before she could ask he was already walking along, scurrying even.

Well, he was a strange sort of bot. Just another one she wished she understood better. One thing at a time though.

She fell into step with him and walked along. A few attempts at small talk later, and he seemed to come around. While he didn't say as much as she did, it was pleasant company at least. She did her best to stay away from the topic of where they were going, instead just talking about the city and her job, how repairs where going along on the titan and the past sixth lunar cycles. While he didn't share much about himself, he nodded to her words and seemed to genuinely listen. It was a good sign he was becoming comfortable.

Conniving bots were outside of her realm of experience but a mech in obvious need of a friend was something she knew very well as a Cityspeaker.

"Well, we're here," she said as they reached their destination. The headquarters of the housing of Starscream's government office was as big as ever, as overly large and gloomy as it always looked, and every bit as intimidating. Despite his facade of a caring and friendly politician, he certainly enjoyed trying to make himself bigger and scarier than everyone around him. What a contradiction, especially since it made working with him so difficult, something he was always trying to convince everyone is what they needed to do.

Did he try to be confusing on purpose or was he just not as good at manipulating people as he thought he was? Well, he was in charge of a planet. That had to indicate something.

"I'm going to go inside. Do you want to wait here or go to his office?" she asked. "Somewhere to sit might be nice for you and I don't think there are many inside right now."

"Wazzpinator go with Windbladezzz. Might be loozzze valuables lying around," he said. "Need to pay off some debtzzz."

"I... I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," she decided hesitantly before going inside with him. Not like it should bother her if he got a few Shanix off of Starscream, though something told her that she was compromising morality again in a bad way. It was hard to be strict though when he looked so needy. He wasn't a bot that got a lot of breaks in his life.

The building was mostly empty except for some guards. She was waved through, though glared at, and she kept Waspinator close just in case. It wasn't until she reached Starscream's office did she see someone else besides security. Rattrap was at a desk just outside, tapping away furiously on a datapad which he stuffed out of sight the second he noticed the pair. Right, because that didn't look suspicious at all.

"I'm here to see Lord Starscream. Is he still working?" she informed the bot before he could ask.

"Boss is always working," he grunted. "It's a bit late past appointment times though."

"It's an impromptu visit," Windblade explained. "I'll only be a bit."

"Hey, wait. You can't just go... Hey! I saw that! You put that statue down right now!" Rattrap snapped, shifting gears suddenly when he saw Waspinator trying to slip something valuable behind his back. She didn't mind the distraction, sneaking past the pair and slipping in the door before she could be stopped. Morals or no morals, she knew an opportunity when she saw one.

"By Primus, what is that vermin's problem now?" the seeker inside hissed as he looked up from his desk from whatever he was working on. The room was bathed in shadows, only the light of a monitor on at his desk, making it hard to see anything but his face that furrowed in displeasure at the sight of her. "Oh, it's you."

The femme couldn't help but wince, but at least he wasn't trying to torture her again. So far, so good.

End of Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Windblade, you're more optimistic than I would be in your shoes. It's not personal though. He doesn't really like anyone.
> 
> On a side note, if the universe hates Waspinator it's nothing compared to how my spell check feels about him. So many Z's it tried to erase. I hated it.
> 
> If you like it, please review. If you hated it, please revie and pretend you enjoyed it for my sake.


	2. You're Not Welcome Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had considered giving the second chapter a few days before I got started to writing it but the response I got was immediate and very kind so I decided to say the hell with it and get started immediately.
> 
> This was amazingly fun to write. Starscream is easily my favorite character out of all the Decepticons, maybe even all of the Transformers characters ever. This is especially true in the IDW comics. They took a relatively enjoyable but one dimensional character and made him horribly tragic, complex and determined. There is so much more to him now than there was 30 years ago and yet they did it without sacrificing the core that made him so fun to begin with. So having him and Windblade just go back and forth at each other was almost addicting in how fun it was. No one sasses or broods quite like the treacherous seeker.
> 
> Of course, as stated before I don't own Transformers. This is just to ship Waspinator and Windblade, and to explore Megatron's and Starscream's immensely complicated relationship.

Chapter 2: You're Not Welcome Here

When Starscream saw the cityspeaker inside of his office, it was probably the last sight on the entire planet he would have wanted to be greeted with. The femme had been causing him nothing but problems lately and his already small amount of patience had been stretched very thin by her. Still, it wasn't exactly the time of the day for social calls and she wouldn't have come here if there wasn't a problem.

Especially with her appearance right now. Her whole frame looked wrong. Her normally high wings were drooped down low, and she was leaning just a touch forward onto the front of her struts, the heels a little bit off the ground and the turbine engines for her jet form as far from the floor as could be without tipping herself forward. It was something any other transformer might have overlooked or not even noticed but Starscream knew the body and habits of seekers too well to not know what it meant. She'd been walking too much lately, her turbines looking gummed up by dirt. There were probably small bits of rubble in there and she unconsciously kept them from getting worse. She was clearly tired too, or she was depressed. Her wings could have meant either and he didn't know her personally well enough yet to know the exact angling of her wings for her moods. Even her bright blue optics were dimmed right now in the dark room, a show of a lack of energy, and it made him wonder what she'd been up to these last few orbital cycles. She certainly hadn't been having enough energon or recharging lately, that was for sure.

"I wasn't expecting anyone this late at night," he said with a tone of disinterest as he rested his chin in his servo and glanced at the computer. She was here to see him, not the other way around. No need to waste good manners on someone who clearly wanted something.

Because she had to want something. Windblade wouldn't come here in such sorry shape to threaten him and that only left the other option of needing a favor from him.

"The decision to see you was a bit last minute," she admitted before she moved over to one of the chairs and sat down. He hadn't invited her to but it didn't seem as if she really cared. "Starscream, we need to talk. Things have to be resolved or we're never going to be able to help Cybertron like either of us want."

"Is there a problem with the space bridge?" he asked.

"No. There's a problem between us," the Cityspeaker reiterated with a shake of her helm. "These last few orbital cycles, Metroplex's blackout, the bombing-"

"You almost killing everyone not in the city?"

It pleased him greatly to see her glare at him, her optics dim but just as fierce as ever. The femme always wore her emotions right on her sleeves as the humans would say. It didn't always make her easy to manipulate, but he certainly appreciated having an opponent he could read.

"Yes," she admitted. "That. Though I want it stated that I never did it. I thought about it for Metroplex's sake, I'll admit to that. It doesn't mean I would have. I think the fact we're both sitting here and talking is proof enough of that."

"And I am supposed to be grateful?" he asked her snidely.

"Oh, for the love of all the Primes, will you just stop being difficult for one minute?!" she snapped suddenly, slamming her servos down onto his desk. "That's exactly why I'm here to see you! This bickering between us won't solve anything. In fact, it's just making things worse. I'll admit that I don't like you much. I think you're controlling, cruel most times, and it seems everyone on this whole planet believes you care about no one but yourself. I don't understand how you could have possibly been chosen by anyone to become the leader of this planet."

"Through hard work and years of planning," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Oh, and of course being the chosen one helped."

"Right, the words of Metrotitan of Crystal City," she mused. "I'd heard about that tale, how he said you'd unite Cybertron. You don't strike me as a man of faith to follow such words."

"I'm not, but I know a good PR campaign when I hear one," he admitted with a smirk, causing her optics to narrow in anger.

"You shouldn't mock prophesies," she said. "The words of a Metrotitan are-"

"Windblade, I really don't care what you think about titans," he cut her off. "Aside from your ability to keep one running, there isn't much use for your ideas about them. Especially not to me."

"Yet you ride the words of one to mark yourself as special for leadership," she bit out. "Arrogance and denial. How efficient of you."

He frowned at her, hating her tone and her words even more.

"And just who are you to judge me?" he snapped at her. "Especially considering what your little bodyguard did. You'd sit there and proceed to tell me I should have faith when the exact same thing led her to nearly destroy everything I have worked for."

"That didn't have anything to do with faith," she argued.

"Oh, but it does," he corrected. "People can have faith in more than just the Primus and ideology. They'll throw their belief in anything, and it's poisonous no matter who or what it is placed in. I've seen fanatics who believed they could make the world a better place before, Windblade. I saw a mech who told us he could change the world, that he could make life better for us all. He led us into battle after battle to sate his own need for revenge, even when it destroyed everyone and everything around him. He ground this planet into dust and it still wasn't enough. Yet the Decepticons followed him, believed in him, and thought he could do no wrong."

"You're referring to Megatron," the Cityspeaker surmised, her tone quiet but clear. She was obviously hanging onto his every word.

"Yes," he answered. "Even when it no longer made sense, even when he was killing his own people for no reason, whole armies followed him willingly. Gratefully, even. Blind faith and nothing more to drag them along and he was the worst of the lot. He honestly believed his own words when he said it was all for peace, his little motto to keep it all going. He never saw fault with his tactics, that he was wrong and was destroying his world. He didn't need anyone. He was right and the world was wrong. Now I look at you, with the power of a Metrotitan in your hands and already one follower who has proven herself willing and capable to kill in your name, not to mention that little ragtag group you convinced to stand against me, and you honestly can sit here and tell me belief is actually a good thing?"

"I am nothing like Megatron!" she protested. "I didn't kill anyone, and I certainly don't condone Chromia's actions! You think it doesn't bother me what she did? I keep thinking about it, those three poor bots that were killed. Even if she was the one to do it, she did it for me. Don't you dare think for a second I think she did the right thing. The fact she did it for me only makes it worse! Still, I won't have you hold that over me like I'm the one who planted that bomb. I didn't do it and I certainly would have stopped her had I known!"

A suddenly bought of air came out from her vents as she frowned and looked away. No doubt trying to regain her composure. Starscream let her have her moment. He'd said what he had wanted to.

"This isn't why I came here," she finally stated as she looked back at him. "I don't want us to fight further. I want to help you, Starscream. I want to help save Cybertron. I don't understand you though. The things you do always seem so conniving and twisted, yet when I was linked to Metroplex... what you said, about everyone getting hurt or killed if the jump was made..."

She sighed as her fingers twisted together and she glanced down at her lap for a second.

"I think we need to start over, that we should try to understand one another better," she informed him. "I understand that this ordeal has been hard on us both. You practically took the blame for Chromia and I, and I have no doubt in my circuits you did it for the promise of the colonies and not out of the goodness of your spark. Still, you did do it and I am grateful for that. Despite what everyone thinks, I'd like to believe somewhere deep down you do care about this city and those inside of it. If I could only understand you, if you would just trust me enough to let me in a little, this wouldn't be nearly as hard on either of us."

"Trust you?" he snorted out. "I don't trust anyone. I've had a whole lifetime to learn how stupid of an idea that is."

"Yet you have people like Rattrap working for you, as close to you as any bot could be," she protested. "He might as well have a sign up over his head with big, bold letters saying he's going to betray you."

"Of course he's going to try to betray me. It's what underlings do. Much better to keep him here so I can keep an optic on him," he informed her. "Don't think I'm an idiot, Windblade. I know what I'm doing. I certainly don't trust that little rat."

"So you're letting someone try and sabotage you," she said incredulously, "but you won't let me help you."

"As I recall, you've done little to prove-"

"I've done plenty and you know it," she snapped. "Stop putting Chromia's actions on me."

"Why not?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why shouldn't I put her actions on your shoulders? She did it for you. She got away with it because of you. You can sit there and say you would have tried to stop her but how true do I know that really is? How do I know you didn't have anything to do with it? Because you didn't jump? That proves little, Windblade, it anything at all. Delaying actions with consequences to a safer time when you won't get caught in order to get others off their guard is easy for those that are patient. I should know. Even if your intentions are pure now, there's nothing to say you won't change your mind later. You have a bot willing to tear anything down for you if you were simply to ask. I'd be a fool not to recognize that as a threat and that you're an enemy, very far from an ally," he stated bitterly.

"I'm not your enemy," she insisted quietly. "I want to help. I've been helping these last six months. Don't you see that? Don't you see I want us to move past this?"

"And how would you propose we do that?" he asked with a roll of his optics.

"I was hoping we could just talk, even with as difficult as you've been trying to make that. Just tell me about yourself, let me tell you about myself. We can reach a compromise that way. Help me understand you better," she said. "I barely know you or anything about you. If I just understood why you act the way you do, maybe we could help one another, come to an agreement or working partnership."

"I'm sorry. You want me to... tell you about myself?" he asked her in amazement. "My Windblade, I have to admit, I was wrong about you."

"What makes you say that?" she asked him.

"You're even more naive and stupid than I thought."

"What?!" she snapped as she jumped up from her chair. He stood as well to meet her optics to optics, not giving her even an inch.

"You heard me," he hissed. "I'm not about to indulge my every thought to you, and I'm amazed you were even dumb enough to ask. As if I would just divulge weaknesses to you just because you want me to. How stupid do you think I am?"

"I'm not asking you for weaknesses," she bit out. "I'm trying to understand you. I want to know if you're even worth helping."

"And why is that so damn necessary?" he asked. "Windblade, you are here because I'm allowing it. You don't need to know anything about me, and I know all I need to know about you. You need to do your job. I'm the one in charge here, and you're just some little alien colonist that so far has given me every reason to be suspicious of you. Whatever little spark to spark moment you were hoping for isn't going to happen, and I don't give a damn if that upsets you or not. You want to help me? Do what you're told. You don't want to? You can hope the next transport to get the frag off of Cybertron and send me a replacement to do your work!"

"You are impossible!" she snapped. "I'm not asking you to hand me a gun to blow your helm off, you know! This isn't to betray or hurt you! But here you stand, asking me to do my job on merit alone? That's no different than asking me to trust you, and you've done a whole lot worse than I have these last six months to earn mine! You hurt others around you to get ahead! You've done nothing but threaten and belittle me long since before Chromia did anything, and you do your best to make everyone around you feel like they're not good enough to lick your struts! Yet you stand on the words of a Metrotitan to mark you as someone destined to make this whole place better! You bark at everyone just expecting them to jump when you want to, even when you do everything in your power to make them hate you! Are you a masochist or are you so twisted up in this idea everyone is out to get you that you have to make them despise you in order to justify your paranoia?

"All I want to know is why. Why did you care so much about those mechs that could have been killed? You could have just let it happen, use it to your advantage, and don't you tell me it was part of some bigger plot. You were panicked, scared and you certainly weren't thinking enough to be plotting or trying to manipulate me with your words. You were honestly scared, not for yourself but for other people. I don't know why you try so hard to deny it. You could honestly care about them and no one would ever know it because of the way you act, like you can't stand the thought of anyone getting close to you."

He glared at her for a long moment, the silence after her shouting stretching out. Neither of them looked away, dared to back down. The intensity of the look she was giving him would have made weaker bots crumble, though he met it with just as harsh of a look.

"Have you ever had someone die under your leadership, Windblade?" he asked her. "I'm not talking about what Chromia caused. I'm talking about people directly under you, those you knew and were in charge of."

"I... no," she said. "It's not like I usually have people under my orders or anything. Most of the time I just worked as a part of a team. I was never really in charge of anyone to worry about that kind of thing before."

"I have," he informed her. "I have seen what happens under bad leadership. I've seen mechs I was supposed to be in charge of... go offline. I know just how easily it is to slip."

After all, he'd been a bad leader before himself, stuck on an asteroid after Megatron gone and nearly died on him. He'd finally gotten the Decepticons like he'd wanted but almost no resources. It had been impossible to pick up the pieces, to fix it all fast enough, and he'd been beaten down by failure after failure. Three years of that, of trying and failing to build up again. Three years of his men starving to the point where they'd begun to cannibalize one another just to survive, and himself at that point too far gone to even try to stop it. He'd been so lost, willing to let Megatron just kill him and put him out of his misery before the old bastard had spared him. Why, he'd never really known. Some punishment no doubt.

He'd grown from that, seen just how easy it was to lose everything, and how badly he needed to be diligent this time. Cybertron was barely alive. He had almost nothing to work with yet again, but he refused to let it get out of control. He'd make it work, even if he had to force it.

"I'm not about to put my trust in you or anything else. I have myself. That's enough," he informed her coldly. "I certainly don't need you questioning my orders or motives."

"Weren't you just saying a little while ago how Megatron didn't think he needed anyone?" she asked him.

Neither of them could have possibly predicted the reaction to her words, his servo curled up into a fist and suddenly swiping out and crashing into his computer, sending it flying across the room and shattering it into a mess of glass, metal and sparks.

"Shut up about him! I am not Megatron!" he shrieked. "That self-satisfying, ego stroking, maniac wanted to destroy this world! That's what he was after the whole time, not peace! He wanted to tear everything apart because he'd felt cheated! His life was miserable so he lashed out at everyone, enemy and ally alike! He didn't want to build a better Cybertron! He didn't want equality! He wanted the Autobots to burn, and if it meant using the planet as tinder it was perfectly fine with him! I'm trying to save Cybertron!"

"Well so am I!" she yelled right back at him.

"As far as I've seen, I doubt that's true!"

"Yeah? Well I could say the same thing to you!" she snapped. "You're certainly no saint after all!"

"I don't need to be! Unlike you and those that follow you, I'm not blinded by faith! I'm no fanatic!"

"I am not a fanatic!"

"I've got three dead mechs that would say otherwise!"

"I already said I felt horrible about that! Stop throwing it in my face! What's it going to take to make you believe my guilt over what she did?!"

"Your guilt doesn't mean slag to me, and nothing else you say does either! Just do your job, and do it because I told you to!"

"Oh right, because that isn't something Megatron would have ever said!"

"I already said I'm-"

"Not Megatron? That's not the impression you're giving me, and to think I actually came here with the hopes you could convince me you actually gave a damn about anyone but yourself! What a waste of time! I never should have come here to talk to you!"

"Too bad you didn't realize that before you came! It could have saved you some time!"

"Fine then, you piece of junk! I'll just go then!"

He watched her stomp out of his office. The door opened so suddenly that both Rattrap and Waspinator fell over through the entrance with a crash, having lost the support of the door they'd been leaning on. Great, looks like someone had been listening in. Not that they hadn't been making enough noise to wake up half of Cybertron.

"Waspinator!" she gasped as she helped him up. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

"Ugh... Wazzpinator fell on helm. Think Wazzpinator knocked something loozzze," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were so close to the door. Come on. I'm done here anyway," she said as she lead him out with her. Starscream glanced down at Rattrap, still on the floor and looking both embarrassed at getting caught and irritated no one had helped him up.

"Rattrap?" he asked.

"Yes, boss?"

"You didn't hurt anything in the fall, did you?"

"Uh... no, boss."

"Good," he bit out as he made his way around the desk and out of his office. "I need a new computer. See about getting one before you leave. I'm getting some medical energon. That harpy shrieks enough to give anyone an ache in their helm."

"Really? Cause the only one I heard shrieking was you. She just seemed to be yelling."

Starscream glared down at him with such a fierce look it should have set fire to the smaller bot.

"You want that big mouth of yours welded shut, Rattrap?" he hissed.

"Ah, no."

"Then I suggest you shut the frag up and do what I said," he bit out before stalking off.

To think that little femme had the nerve to say such things to him. What the hell did she know about him? Nothing, absolutely nothing. To think she would compare him to his former leader, that pathetic waste of metal. Megatron hadn't given a damn about any of his followers, even when their loyalty had led them to whatever crazy plan he'd had for them that time. He couldn't have ever accomplished what Starscream had recently, wouldn't have even tried. The old fool couldn't have even let himself die with some honor, now wearing the Autobot symbol on his chest and parading around as if he'd actually changed and seen the error of his ways. Just yet another bit of garbage he'd spouted to get others to allow him to do whatever he wanted. It was sickening to think there were still Decepticons out there who hung on his every word like lost sparklings.

And that femme, she was just as bad. She didn't want to admit it, but he saw it in her optics. Her naivete. The belief she could actually stand up to him, pretending to care and like she was some innocent little waif. She was just trying to get him to lower his guard, and he wasn't about to fall for it. Whatever she was up to, he'd get her, and once that space bridge was finished he'd get her out of the way so she wouldn't be a threat to him anymore.

Megatron had spent millions of years driven by the faith of others to the point no one had been able to see his massive flaws, no one but the seeker himself. He'd be offlined before he ever let Windblade get that kind of following.

He'd save Cybertron on his own, and it didn't matter who he crushed on his way to do it. They didn't want to work with him, to work for him, it was their own faults for opposing him in the first place.

End of Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Windblade came to calm the waters and ended up with the effect of pouring gasoline all over it and lighting a match. Not that I blame her. Starscream is too stubborn to let anyone in, least of all someone he sees as a threat to his rule. Ironic really, when she's probably one of the few who'd be willing to honestly help him if he'd just act like a decent bot once in a while. Well, four million years of bad habit forming will do that.
> 
> Chapter is a bit shorter than I would have wanted but I didn't want their fight to drag out too long. They pretty much said what needed to be said, and screamed out the rest. Don't worry. Things will come around for them eventually.
> 
> Reviews are always welcome.


	3. Not Such a Bad Mech

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, apologies for this being so late after just starting this story. If I have ever been kicked in the teeth over circumstances, it has been now. I won't get into too many details but my computer has been dying and it may have finally gone out, and took all my notes on this story with it. My hopes for recovery aren't high. Before that I was having trouble writing this chapter because it just wasn't flowing properly, and I was waiting on issues of comics I did not have yet to arrive in the mail because I wanted to make sure all my canon was correct. This really should have been out over a month ago and I'm sorry for the wait.
> 
> I didn't want to allow this to go on any longer, so I just buckled down on my new computer and began all over again from scratch. It felt weird to write on this one because the keyboard is slightly different in configuration so it took much longer to do anything. With luck I'll get used to it soon, though honestly I'm happy with anything that works at this point. I think though after all this effort, the chapter came out strong and I liked where it went. Oddly enough, Windblade and Waspinator were hard to write in this one. They kept sort of drifting from how I felt they should act the first few times I tried this, but this last time flowed pretty well. I guess it's all in just being patient and keeping at it.
> 
> I do sincerely hope this chapter is to everyone's liking and that no one minded waiting too long for it. Again, my sincerest apologies.

Chapter 3: Not Such a Bad Mech

Waspinator did not know why he got into most of the situations he ended up in his life. Oh, he knew the how and the formula that it almost always worked out on. Most cases he simply minded his own business and someone approached him and made him do something he didn't really want to because it would no doubt be bad for his health. Usually his cooperation was ensured by promises that not helping would be even worse for his health. It was the pattern of his life, one he had accepted a long time ago. He used to resent it, then he'd gotten used to it, and now he was just riding it out with a sorry sort of resignation. There was a certain comfort in the known element in his life. If he expected it to be awful it didn't hurt so bad when things went south for him again and again.

It was just the why he never really understood. He didn't deserve half of what happened to him, at least he didn't think he did.

He'd begun to believe the universe was sentient and alive, and just didn't like him for whatever reason. He couldn't figure out why. He certainly couldn't have done anything to the universe. Apparently his opinion on the matter was moot though and so he spent his days getting shot at, hit, burned, struck by lightning, kicked in the spike, thrown off of ships, thrown off of buildings, blown apart and just generally chewed on by everything around him. Still he got through it with the ideology that at least while he was at the bottom of the food chain, it was something he was used to and knew would never change. It was a comfort that only a pathetic bot could find himself content with, but Waspinator had long since given up hope that things would, or even could, get better.

Which was probably why his current situation had him so confused right now because it didn't make any sense at all to him. It wasn't anything that he was used to. It didn't fit the patterns in his life and it threw him a bit.

"How's it holding up?" Windblade asked as she turned a small screwdriver in circles over his helm, tightening a tiny screw right where his left yellow antenna was attached. It had been knocked loose earlier at Starscream's office when she'd thrown the door open after her fight with the Cybertronian leader. While she'd already invited him home for a drink or two of energon, when she'd found out about injuring him, albeit in a very minor way, she'd insisted on fixing him up personally as an apology for what she'd done.

No one had ever said they were sorry about hurting him before and definitely had never offered to help fix him.

"Feelzzz much better now," he answered quietly, a little tense. Her fingers were trailing delicately over his helm as she worked on him, soft and soothing but it set him on edge. No one ever touched him without the intention to harm him. It just didn't happen. He didn't think she would start smacking him or anything but it was just so strange he couldn't get use to it. He kept fidgeting and pulling away from her subconsciously, though she was so patient she let him move around as much as he wanted. The feeling of another mech actually caring about his well being was just too different to just accept without question and it put him on edge.

"That's good. Sorry again about that. I really had no idea you were so close to the door," she apologized. She gave one last twist of the screw to make sure it was really done and checked his other antenna was just as secure before putting the tool down. "I should have been paying better attention. I was just so mad."

"Izzz okay," he murmured with a shrug. Again, he really wasn't used to someone saying sorry for his pathetic state of being. Everyone just accepted he was a punching bag. He'd have given it no second thought if she had just left him there in Starscream's office. The fact she kept insisting on being… well, compassionate was just too weird. "Wazzpinator is uzzzed to it."

"You shouldn't be," she said as she smiled at him, but it was a sad one. He wasn't sure if she was genuine or was just upset over what happened earlier. Maybe she was just tired. She certainly looked exhausted to him. Had she not been recharging lately?

"Why is Metroplex lady so worried?" he asked suddenly. "No one carezzz for Wazzpinator? Why lady bot care?"

"Why wouldn't I?" she replied incredulously.

"No one carezzz about Wazzpinator. Everyone thinkzzz Wazzpinator wazzzte of time… including Wazzpinator sometimezzz," the former Decepticon answered. It was a simple enough concept, right? Everything and everyone hated him. It was just how his existence was.

"Then everyone is wrong," Windblade countered a little hotly. "You're a good mech. No one should treat you like that for any reason. It's not right, and I certainly won't do that to you."

"You think… Wazzpinator… good?" he asked, his purple optics wide and glittering in surprise.

"Of course I do. You helped me when I needed it," she said before looking down at her servos and twisted her fingers together in a sign of worry. "Not that it worked out. There was so much I was wrong about. I didn't do any better tonight either. I'd hope to fix some bridges but it's more like I poured energon all over the place and set fire to the situation. And you heard all that yelling too. I guess I probably sounded pretty immature in there."

"With Starzzzcream?" he asked before he quickly shook his head. "Oh no, no. Lotzzz of bots yell at Starzzzcream. Izzz hard one to handle. Lord Megatron argued with him all the time. Like… like allllll the time."

"Gee, I wonder why," she sighed. "He's so… impossible. The way he acted you'd think I'd threatened him or something."

"Juzzzt what did Windbladezzz hope to find out?" he asked her.

"I don't know," she said as she moved over to a small energon dispenser. After she filled up two glasses, she came back to the couch he was sitting at and handed one to him. He took it as she sat down as well, turning it a little in his claws as he watched her. She seemed pensive, but maybe that should have been expected given what had happened earlier that night. "I guess I'd hoped to make peace with him. It was stupid to think I could just talk to him but I had to do something."

"But Starzzzcream no longer wantzzz anyone in jail, so everything good now," he said with a reassuring smile. "Right?"

She sighed softly and took a sip of her drink before she shook her helm and put it down on the table in front of them. She'd made a face as if the taste was bad, though when he sipped his it seemed more than fine to him, the brand of it sweet and smooth in a way he'd never had before.

"I don't think so," she whispered. "When I first came to Cybertron, I thought I could help. I thought I could save my world but it turned out this world was every bit in need of saving too. I don't know what to do to fix it. It's all so much, and I've already made such big mistakes."

"About what?"

"I… I can't say," Windblade admitted. "It's not really something I can discuss. Just know that explosion, the one Starscream and I told the reporters was an accident? It wasn't."

"So then Starzzzcream did do it! He'zzz making you go along with cover up?" he asked. That would be just up his alley to do too.

"Oh Primus… I… No," she said as she quickly shook her helm. "I can't say who did it, but it wasn't Starscream. I… I had to protect someone and that's why it got covered up but I can't get over it. I've been trying to help make things better but three innocent mechs are dead, Metroplex is being pushed so hard and I don't have answers for anything. I can't help but… but feel like I'm the one to blame. Starscream was right. I… I do feel guilty. I can't recharge without nightmares of those mechs that died. Nothing tastes right and I can't help but feel like… like… Oh Primus, those mechs are dead because of me..."

Waspinator watched with wide optics as she began to struggle with her words, curling up in herself on the couch. She held her helm in her servos as she trembled slightly and it wasn't until cleansing fluid began to fall in drops onto her lap did he realize she was beginning to cry.

Oh! Oh no! What was he supposed to do?! He'd never dealt with another bot crying on him before!

"I'm sorry," she hiccuped as she began to wipe at her faceplate, staining her fingers with the paint just underneath her optics. "This is rude. Y-you don't want... want to hear all of this. I just..."

She hiccuped again just before a sob escaped her. He watched helplessly as she turned her helm away from him and frantically tried to hide her crying. His antennas began to twitch as he wondered what he should do. His whole body buzzed with worry and he slowly reached for her. He had no idea what he was doing but she clearly needed something.

The second his claw touched her shoulder she suddenly shoved herself at him as he waved his arms frantically with fear.

"Sorry! Sorry! Wazzpinator did not mean to..." He drifted off as he noticed he had not been attacked but she'd thrown her arms around him and begun to sob uncontrollably. He felt tense and nervous. Hugging was better than getting hit… barely. Hitting he knew how to react to.

He just sat there as she cried. The insectoid felt like he should say or do something to help but he really had no idea how. So Waspinator just let her cry into his chest, getting paint and fluids all over him. At least letting her cry was helping, right? Or was he just making it worse by not doing anything? Oh Primus, was he supposed to do something? Is that what she expected?

Getting more and more worried and awkward over not reacting to her emotional state, he eventually began to pat her on her back. That would help, right? She didn't stop, but she didn't object either so he figured it had to be better than nothing. It certainly couldn't be any worse, touching her at all.

So he just patted gently, trying to be as soothing as she'd been when she'd fixed his helm, eventually trailing his claws over her back and the back of helm as well, occasionally trailing his claws over her wings gently. It was a lot of touching he wasn't really used to but if there was even a slight chance it was helping then he wasn't about to stop. Finally his arms just came to rest around her and held her close to let her get it all out.

After what felt like forever, she eventually began to calm down. Several minutes of hiccuping and sniffling later, she stopped making any sounds at all and just stayed still in his arms.

"Izzz… izzz Windbladezzz okay?" he asked her uncertainly.

"No," she whispered back. "I feel so guilty right now. I'm sorry for that, really. I just… So many things feel like my fault now. I want to make things right but how do I do that when I don't even know what to do? I thought going to Starscream… that it might help somehow but it only made it all worse. I don't understand him, and I have no one I can trust anymore. I covered up the reason three mechs died and I did it to help someone but I don't know if it was right or maybe… maybe I'm just as bad as Starscream. I put my own needs in front of the truth and… By the Primes, I'm rambling..."

"Windbladezzz izzz not like Starzzzcream," Waspinator said suddenly as she trailed off. "Not at all. Windbladezzz izzz good mech."

"I'm not really-"

"No, you listen to Wazzpinator," he insisted as he took her by her arms and looked her right into the optics. Her entire faceplate was a mess of fluid and ruined paint, and she looked so sad he couldn't take it. This wasn't like her. She almost always had a smile on, always looked so hopeful and determined. He hated this and he wanted more than anything to fix it even if he didn't know exactly how to. "Starzzzcream bad mech. Cybertron full of bad mechs. Decepticonzzz full of bad mechs. Autobotzzz full of bad mechs. Wazzpinator even bad mech. Whole planet should shake itzzzelf and get rid of whole lot of uzzz. Windbladezzz not bad, not at all."

"Waspinator, you're not a-"

"Yezzz. Wazzpinator is," he interrupted again. He'd get through this and make her listen no matter what it took. "Wazzpinator very bad mech. Wazzpinator hazzz had bad life. Awful life. Lived through war, wazzz hurt a lot. Hurt other botzzz a lot. Did not care. Did it becauzzze told to, but alzzzo to get back at life that made Wazzpinator hurt so much. Juzzzt azzz bad as everyone else. Windbladezzz is different. You help botzzz, give so much to do right thing. Care for Metrotitan, care for Cybertron. More than a lot of botzzz can say."

His pincers over his mouth clicked a couple times as she looked up at him with wet optics. He couldn't read her expression and he sighed a little.

"Wazzpinator helped what happened to Cybertron," he informed her. "Did Windbladezzz know that?"

"Wait, you mean with what Shockwave tried to do?" the Cityspeaker asked. "When he tried to destroy everything to power the planet forever? What did you have to do with that?"

"Wazzzpinator… brought the undead titan to Shockwave," Waspinator informed her. "Wazzz told to do it. Didn't know what wazzz plan, but did it anyway. Still rezzzponsible for what happened, at leazzzt a little bit."

"You were the one to bring the titan?" she asked in shock. That battle had been so chaotic, no one had really known what was going on at the time. Fighting had been spread all over the place and she'd never had the chance to find out just how the other titan had even gotten there. When everything had been put on Shockwave, she'd been too busy with helping with Metroplex to worry about the exact details. Still, to hear that Waspinator had helped him… "I don't understand. How could you have done that?"

"Wazzz connected to it," he answered. "Could hear it thinking, could make it hear Wazzpinator. Very painful and confusing. Lotzzz of buzzing noise. Hard to understand."

"What?!" she cried. "You mean you had merged mentally with it! But that's almost impossible to handle! Cityspeakers can barely manage it without dying or hurting themselves after centuries of training. How could you possible have had control over him?"

He pulled out his weapon, his stinger. It only glowed faintly with the residue energy of the fallen titan, but it was there. The faintest bit of proof of what he'd done and how the giant mech was linked to him. It often worried him that it had not gone away yet, but he tried not to think about it too much.

"Long time ago, Wazzpinator was part of group working for Megatron to find Metrotitanzzz. Wanted their power. Took long time but finally found one. Wazzpinator dealt final blow… killed the titan… had only meant to hurt it to bring it back."

He risked a glance at her, flinching at the horror on her faceplate at what he was telling her. Why was he doing this? She was the one bot in the whole universe who actually liked him. Why would he say all of this and risk that? She just looked so sad and guilty, and he hated her to think she was bad or horrible. No, he was the horrible bot here.

"Somehow linked with the Metrotitan. Learned how to direct it. Wazzpinator had been pulled into… well, Wazzpinator not know where it wazzz, but it wazzz scary. Wanted to leave azzz soon azzz pozzzible. Got titan to leave and then Wazzpinator ran away. Wazzz later found, told to help Shockwave get it back and control it. Then Shockwave tried to kill Wazzpinator for effortzzz. Afterward helped Autobotzzz and Decepticonzzz stop it!"

He tried to end the tale with a flourish that made him look better in her optics. He didn't bother to add the fact he'd been forced to go back and that he'd just been stabbed in the back and that had been the end of it. No reason to bring up that part.

"That's a lot to take in," she confessed. "I mean, merging with a titan is incredible but it was only possible by killing it and then it was desecrated by that. My religion hold titans as blessed creations to be treasured. Hearing what happened is… I know you're a good mech but..."

"Mechs do bad thingzzz," he said softly. "Maybe all would have happened anyway. Shockwave smart and powerful. Probably would have done it all even without Wazzpinator. Will never know. Wazzpinator did bad thingzzz, can probably never completely make it up but… honezzztly without Windbladezzz never would have even thought about it before now."

"What do you mean?" the femme questioned him, seeming confused.

"Windbladezzz kind. No one ever be nice to Wazzpinator before. Did not make Wazzpinator help, juzzzt asked. Wazzz nice to Wazzpinator when didn't have to be. Could have juzzzt bullied to get help," he said. He was so pathetic it would have worked just as well, if not better. "Inzzztead never made Wazzpinator do anything. Said sorry to Wazzpinator, showed concern. Wazzpinator likezzz Windbladezzz… began to think about what wazzz done and felt bad never tried to be good like lady bot before. Want to be better now. Maybe can be. Not hurt otherzzz anymore. Wazzpinator is bad mech… but can hope to be good. Juzzzt has to try harder. True for Windbladezzz too. If did something wrong, then do better next time. Such good mech, mizzztakezzz allowed sometimezzz."

"You… you really see me that way?" she asked. It was hard to tell under the mess under her optics but it seemed she was blushing a bit. Maybe it was just all the smeared red paint. He could not tell.

"Yezzz," he answered. "Wazzpinator doezzz. Wantzzz to be better because of Windbladezzz."

"I'm flattered," she said softly. "You're right. Nothing can change the past. What happened does matter, and I can't just forget it but I can't let myself fall apart either. I don't know if I'll ever stop feeling guilty… and maybe that's what I deserve. I can use it to be better though. I can learn."

"Then does Windbladezzz feel better?" he asked hopefully. He'd like to know he was able to do something good for her after everything she'd done for him.

"I… I don't know yet," Windblade admitted. "I have a lot to think about. I still don't know what to do about Starscream. He's the leader of this planet and he's the key to helping it. The best way would be to work with him but I don't know how. He just expects me to do anything he says but I can never risk letting something so awful as that explosion happen again, or the Primes forbid, something even worse."

Her wings sagged even further down than they had been before and her vents whirled quietly as she sighed out.

"I do feel more hopeful though, certainly much more than before," she continued. "Things have to get better somehow and it won't happen if I let myself sink in this. I have a lot of have to make up for but I think I have to learn how to deal with it first. Thanks for letting me get it all out of my system. It had been eating me up inside and I… I just… Thanks for being there, Waspinator."

"Windbladezzz izzz welcome," he said softly.

She smiled weakly at him and he wondered if she was mad about his confession and too tired to face it or if she'd actually forgiven him. It was a little surprising she hadn't begun to yell at him and kick him out. Even as nice as he knew she was, he kept getting surprised by it.

"So, what will Windbladezzz do now?" he asked.

"I don't really know," she admitted. "I guess for now just work on Metroplex. He still needs to be fixed and helped. That alone will be a big job that will take a long time. I certainly haven't given up on Starscream. He twisted me around earlier but it doesn't change that I need him to stop all this scheming and work with me. I don't know what he's planning and that worries me. I need his trust or I need to know him well enough to work around him. One way or the other it's going to be tough. I might need a different approach to this though. He's not going to help me in the slightest. Even just asking him about himself got him in a rage."

"Starzzzcream is Decepticon, whether wearzzz badge or not," Waspinator said. "He liezzz, cheatzzz, manipulatezzz and helped lead the war for yearzzz. Izzz dangerouzzz."

"True, and I certainly wouldn't ever think about defending him but… well, let's just say I saw something that gave me hope. We'll never be friends but maybe someday I can work with him for real and not just cut deal after deal over every little thing, trying to out maneuver him. I just wish I knew what he was really like, under all these masks he wears."

"Thundercracker knew Starzzzcream well," Waspinator informed her. "Wazzpinator worked with him to hunt… ah… doezzz not matter how Wazzpinator knew seeker bot. Just know they were trinematezzz."

"Trinemates?" she asked. "What's that?"

"Windbladezzz not know? But izzz seeker," he stated. Didn't all seekers know about that stuff? She just looked clueless. "Uh… well… Don't know much. Juzzzt know it made them clozzze. Though Thundercracker no longer on Cybertron. Skywarp izzz but not know where he izzz and… he would probably try to hurt Windbladezzz. Izzz Decepticon."

"Yeah, I don't think that will help," the Cityspeaker concluded. "Besides, I've already asked around about him. It's all the same. He cares about himself. It's all I hear but I just don't think that's all there is to it."

"Only other mech so clozzze to Starzzzcream wazzz Megatron. They hated each other," Waspinator replied.

"He's gone too though," she replied. Besides the thought of approaching him seemed even worse than Starscream himself. Though he was an Autobot now, she'd heard all about him and he seemed honestly terrifying to her. A war leader who had nearly destroyed the world was not someone she wanted to chat up. "I should probably just worry about this later. Honestly, I don't think I can come up with anything tonight."

He saw her pause for a second, her optics dimming for a moment even further than they were now. No doubt internally checking her status. She didn't seem like she had enough reserve right now to do that and keep functional at the same time.

"I should recharge... or at least try to," she informed him. "Thank you for your company. I'm sorry I broke down on you like that."

"No, no. Izzz okay," he reassured her. He drank the glass she'd given him and he hadn't really touched much yet, grinning widely to show her his appreciation. She giggled for a second, her smile tired but real. He took it as a good sign she was feeling better and he'd helped her reach that point, even if only a little.

"If you ever need some energon again, feel free to come by. Don't steal anymore," she scolded him gently as she walked him to the door. He didn't answer to say that he wouldn't. After all, he didn't want to lie to her, but she seemed to accept it as a confirmation anyway. "Good night, Wazzpinator."

"Good night, Windbladezzz," he answered before the door slid closed. He actually felt himself smiling a little as he began to make his way down the street and through the city. The visit had been a little awkward and he'd nearly panicked a lot of times, but it seemed things had all worked out in the end. He was going to take it as a good sign.

It wasn't until he was all the way back to the bar that he realized he had no money for a room any more than he'd had for drinks and therefore nowhere to sleep but the streets. Well, least he'd escaped his beating thanks to the Cityspeaker. That was something, right?

"Hey! Isn't that the bot that was stealing our energon before?"

He slumped over as the overcharged mechs that had caught him earlier left the bar and spotted him almost immediately, menacingly cracking their servos together as they advanced on him.

"Wazzpinator knew universe wazzz just biding time," he muttered right before the first punch made contact.

End of Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, his life sucks. I'm a horrible person. Still, least he was able to help Windblade. Please leave reviews and let me know if I handled him well. I want to make sure I got the right mixture of pathetic without being totally depressing with his character and getting a nice innocence to him despite all he's done, measured with a bit of wisdom despite not being the smartest bot out there. Also, love hearing his accent. Hate… haaaaate writing it.


	4. Scheming for Answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since the last chapter took so long to get out, I wanted to hurry with this one and post it as soon as possible. It also helped a had a few days off coming up and I was able to spend a bit of time writing like I wanted to, which really helped out.
> 
> Nothing much to really say about this one other than I hope you enjoy it and please review if you'd be so kind.
> 
> Also, as a note I'm using the IDW standard of what a cycle is. It's 1.25 hours, otherwise an hour and fifteen minutes. I wanted to say that before anyone got confused.

Chapter 4: Scheming for Answers

The next morning met Windblade with more enthusiasm than she really wanted. The sun was bright outside in the early hour and yet another morning without a berth made her joint's creak in protest. Ugh, she'd have to get an oil bath today if nothing else to stop the noise. That would be driving her crazy within a couple cycles.

Her energy logs were much better this morning though. She'd only awoken twice from nightmares the night before, dreams that she was already removing from her memory blanks. She knew the vague idea of them already, the explosion, the screaming, the pain and horror that overwhelmed her and felt like she was drowning in it. That was more than enough for her. The exact details always made her shudder in horror right after waking up, seeing the faceplatess of the mechs that had died crawling toward her, their bodies melting in the fire… asking her why'd she'd allowed this…

She determinedly deleted that part immediately, blinking in confusion for a second as the dump processed. What had she been thinking about? Oh… her dreams. Had they been bad? Hmm, she couldn't remember. Probably for the best. The memories of that had happened were bad enough without her mental processor and spark making it worse on her.

Her energy wasn't anywhere near topped though, but to be frank she was getting tired of pushing herself to the point of collapse. Waspinator's words rang in her mind, telling her she had to be strong and move on. He was a transformer who always seemed to have scrap piled up on top of him, so if he could do it than she could.

She made her way over to the energon dispenser and drank her fill, forcing it down even when her tanks rumbled in protest. The taste was just as awful as before for some reason and she offlined her optics for a moment as she tried to calm herself. This guilt was eating at her but she had no way to combat it. Running from it to her work left her exhausted, and running from her work was not an option. She'd considered before the option of deleting the memory completely of what had happened but that was no solution either. She needed to know what Chromia had done, why these bots where gone. Forgetting would not change what happened, only make her irresponsible for trying to deleting it in her mind.

Instead she forced herself to go through her morning to get ready. There was no time to mope when Metroplex needed her after all. Once her energon levels were full and her reserve was at a high enough percentage that she found tolerable, she painted her faceplate with the lush, bright red paint she always had nearby that showed her as a child of Caminus. If nothing else, she could still find pride in that.

Once ready, she made her way downstairs to see Chromia. Sure enough it was already nearly 0600. Her bodyguard had insisted that nothing had changed on protecting her, that she still needed to make sure Windblade could defend herself and stayed alive. Out of respect, and realizing it was very true, she hadn't argued it.

"You didn't go home last night then," the other femme said in greeting.

"No," she replied. "I had errands to run and then I came back here. I slept though."

"How long?"

"About… ah, let's see… three or four cycles," she answered.

"That's not even the entire night, Windblade!" Chromia protested. "You're going to make yourself sick!"

"I went to sleep late, and I also woke up a couple of times," she explained. "Look, I tried. Really."

Chromia's vents blew out some air before she just went into a battle stance.

"Fine. I believe you. Just get ready."

For a moment Windblade wondered if Chromia was going to put up much of a fight since she looked so upset, but she barely had her blade out before her friend charged her. Their weapons met with a sizzle of energy and the seeker was pushed back several feet. The Cityspeaker wasn't prepared when she was stumbled back before she was able to get her footing, but much too late. She didn't even see the shield until it slammed against her and knocked her down to her aft, Chromia frowning at her from up above.

"You're going to start sleeping more if I have to drag you to your berth," she stated firmly. "I don't care if you trust me any more or not."

"Chromia, I-"

"No! Don't you do this to me! Don't tell me this is all my fault and then put yourself through this! It's enough that it's my doing that got you in trouble and you had to protect me! Don't make yourself so tired you can't even defend yourself like this! What if something happens? What if you get attacked and have to fight back, but you can't and get hurt or killed? Is that what you want to do? Die and make it my fault?!"

The tirade killed everything Windblade was going to saying, dying in her vocalizer before it even had an opportunity to be said.

"No, of course not," she whispered before she stood up. "Chromia..."

She thought long and hard about what she wanted to say, trying to figure it all out before she did so. Waspinator had told her what he had done and she'd forgiven him, mostly. The death of a titan was a horrible crime but she knew him and knew he would not have done such a thing on his own without being made to. Chromia had done this all under her own power though, but it had been much fewer victims and she had done it with the desire to keep Windblade safe. It didn't make it any better, but she couldn't accept one and condemn another. Forgiveness couldn't come yet. She couldn't even forgive herself right now, but she couldn't keep worrying and hurting her friend like this. Because despite everything, Chromia was still her friend and Windblade did not want to lose her.

"You're right. I'm sorry," she stated as she bowed slightly to her bodyguard. "I will try my best to be more careful in the future… and I'll go home to sleep from now on. I think Metroplex might be a little more at ease knowing I was resting anyway."

"Really? I mean, you said you had work for Starscream and couldn't afford to," Chromia said, clearly surprised the other femme was giving in when she'd been so stubborn the night before.

"Starscream isn't happy with me right now anyway," she answered. "Besides I don't think I could do anything worse to tick him off."

"What do you mean?"

"I sort of went to talk to him last night."

"WHAT?!" Chromia cried. "By yourself? Are you mad?!"

"No, no," she assured quickly. "Waspinator was with me."

"Waspinator? The bug? Just what could he have done to protect you?"

"Starscream isn't so bad he's going to try to kill me," Windblade mused. After all, he did still need her to repair and then work the space bridge. "Besides, I got back just fine."

"Hmph. Next time just ask me to come with you," she muttered.

"I will," Windblade promised and she meant it. Chromia was going to always worry about her, it's just how things were. It was touching, even if it had led to horrible things. Maybe she could do like Waspinator suggested, work past it and move on stronger. She knew Chromia wouldn't do something like that again and could be trusted. She'd given her word to behave and would. Windblade needed to be mature enough to meet her halfway.

"So why did you go to the almighty lordship in the first place?"

"Information gathering mostly," Windblade explained. "After everything he said about everyone outside of Metroplex dying, I don't want to believe he's as bad as all these bots says he is. I'd like to try to reach out to him. It… it didn't go well though."

"Did you honestly expect it to?"

"I was probably a bit too hopeful. His bitterness blindsided me more than it should have. I'm going to try again though. I can't avoid him and I can't work with him as our relationship is now. I need a different approach to understanding him though."

"This is going to lead to more explosions," Chromia muttered dryly. It was a poor joke in Windblade's mind, but she had a point. This needed to be handled delicately.

"I'll figure something out," the Cityspeaker replied.

"Uh huh. You want to become his friend so he'll stop all the scheming and not throw us in jail then?"

"Friends might be pushing it. I was hoping for allies," Windblade said as she made a face in irritation. Friendship with Starscream isn't what she had in mind at all. He'd certainly never want it and she didn't feel like that was something she'd ever want to pursue either. "No, his motivations are what is important here. If I could just find common ground. We both want to save Cybertron, so there's that."

"But he only wants Cybertron safe if he gets to rule it," Chromia insisted.

Windblade had to admit that was probably true. What to do about that then? She honestly had no real idea. She wanted to be able to trust Starscream but in this current state she just couldn't. On the other hand she wanted him to trust her. Maybe that angle would be easier to work on.

Not that it would be that much easier since she'd started so much trouble in his office. She'd probably need to smooth that out first before anything. Wasn't there any way to accomplish all of that in one go though?

She'd have to offer him something he'd want, something that would make him allow her to get close. What though? She already had the space bridge extended to him. What else was there? What else could he possible want that she could get involved in?

"I got it," she said as she slapped her servos together. "Chromia, Ironhide is going to be by in a bit, right?"

"In about a cycle. Why?" her bodyguard asked.

"I'm going to do some work with Metroplex. When he comes by, you and I are going out to see Starscream," she explained. "Just keep watch until then, okay?"

If Chromia was surprised by the sudden desire to be brought along, it didn't show on her faceplate and the Cityspeaker found that to be enough for her. Going to the room Metroplex's mind was in, she smiled softly as the brain lit up at her presence.

" _Wind-voice arrived."  
_

_"Power status at 65% at T-194. Diverting 1% from T-128 through T-132, T-150 through T-169, and T-174 to reach accepted level giving living protocol."  
_

_"The planets are shifting."  
_

_"Temperature rise. Solar structures engaged for energy requirement needs."  
_

"Hello, Metroplex. I need you to do something for me."

_"Power requirement?"_

"No, nothing like that. I need to know the location of a couple things. Metroplex… can you please tell me where the two orbs inside of you are?"

There was a pause for a second, the lights stopping for a brief moment. Windblade began to feel worried when she didn't get a reply.

"Metroplex?"

_"The stars."_

_"Power deriving from T-128 through T-132, T-150 through T-169, and T-174. Power status climbing from 65%."  
_

_"Wind-voice planning?"  
_

"I'd like to see what can be done about Starscream," she answered. "I think he's looking for the orbs inside of you. At least, that's what I thought before. I think I might be able to use that. If he is, we could get to them together. It would be easier if I could move your parts around and then he wouldn't have to mine inside of you so much. If his motives aren't in the best interest of Cybertron, then you and I get rid of them and make sure he can never reach them. If his purposes are noble then… I'd like to know for myself just what to do about him. I need to know if I can trust him, and the orbs are still an issue. This will take care of both."

_"The stars."_

"Yes, Starscream."

_"The stars."_

Windblade wondered if perhaps she was confusing him. Metroplex wasn't always easy to understand but he never just avoided her like this. Perhaps he wasn't avoiding her though. Was there something she wasn't getting?

"What about the stars, Metroplex? Do the stars have anything to do with the orbs?"

_"T-194 currently at 74% percent and climbing."_

_"Solar panels now engaged. Power derived in single solar cycle estimated increase 3%_ _daily_ _."_

"Metroplex, the stars?" she urged gently.

_"Screaming."_

"What?"

_"The stars are screaming."_

Her wings sagged. She was not sure she was going to get anything like this. What was he trying to tell her?

"Are you trying to tell me something about Starscream?" she asked him, deciding to try this from another angle.

_"The stars are screaming."_

She rubbed at her faceplate at the answer. This was getting her nowhere.

"Metroplex. I need to know where the orbs are," she informed him. It would do no good to ask about Starscream if she couldn't understand the answer.

 _"No. Information can not be_ _divulged._ _"_

"Why not?" she asked.

_"The stars are screaming."_

She blinked at the blinking lights of Metroplex's brain stopped again for a moment before they all flashed her the same message, all in his different voices and dialects. Some went on in long verses about balls of gas shrieking to the heavens, while other numerical codes told her in long strings of 1's and 0's, or stated simply as he'd said before, but all of the different messages just repeated over and over again. Apparently this was important.

"Okay, okay. The stars are screaming. You want to tell me about Starscream, I'm all audio receptors," she answered.

_"Screaming."_

Okay, this approach wasn't working either.

"Screaming," she repeated. "Uh… why screaming?"

_"Screaming."  
_

_"Wind-voice turmoil."_

"What? No, I'm not in any turmoil."

 _"Wind-voice turmoi_ _l_ _."_

She frowned a bit, wanting to deny it again. She didn't like Metroplex know when she was upset. It made him focus energy on her instead of helping and healing himself.

"I'm not… okay, I'm a little in turmoil. I'll admit it, but that's why I need your help. I need to fix what I've done."

_"Wind-voice turmoil."  
_

_"The stars are screaming."  
_

_"The Wind-voice is screaming."  
_

_"Stars turmoil."_

She just stood there for a second as she let that sink in, slowly seeming to understand what Metroplex had been trying to tell her. Starscream was in turmoil, like her? Did he feel guilty too? Metroplex was like the other Autobots. He'd been involved in the war too and probably knew Starscream as well as any other. Her large and patient friend cared about everyone. Was he supporting her need to get closer to Starscream?

"So… Starscream is hurting then, like I am?" she whispered softly as she traced a servo over his large brain. The lights flickered gently and she didn't know what to say to the last message he gave her. Stunned, she just walked out of the room. She hadn't gotten what she'd first been thinking about using, but she had gotten something.

"Back already?" Chromia asked her. "I thought you had work to do?"

"I'd planned on it, but it seems Metrotitan has something else in mind," she said with a small smile. For the first time she actually felt confident about this. A real chance was presenting itself to her and she wasn't going to be a fool and not take it.

"What?" her bodyguard asked.

The Cityspeaker grinned softly as she went over to one of the computers she'd been using to keep track of the progress on the space bridge and picked up a spare datapad as well. She started to type quickly until she found exactly what she was looking for.

"Remember that ship that Nautica wanted to become a part of?" she asked as Chromia approached her.

"Yes. The Lost Light. She said she wanted to be a part of something more. An adventure finding the founding Knights of Cybertron practically had her drooling transfluid at the thought of it." Chromia replied. "Why?"

"After the believed explosion of the Lost Light, they went two years without contact. Of course they were too busy to really check in and so much power is required to send messages back and forth it's impossible to get a clear communication through all the time. So of course contact was lost. Not like the Lost Light was keeping tabs with the former leader of the Autobots, Bumblebee," Windblade informed her.

"I don't see the point here."

"The Lost Light is now carrying someone on it. Someone very important. Someone Cybertron can not risk losing track of. Therefore an enhancement was put on the ship. It allows it to receive messages with only an hour long delay. Though with enough of a power boost and as long as there's nothing in the way to block the signal, they can actually talk live. Cybertron can send a message on the exact coordinates it needs to be at to receive a live message feed and if that's not possible the Lost Light just sends a following message back assuring everything is alright. They did it specifically to ensure Megatron wouldn't be able to leave without there being an alert put out for him almost immediately."

"So?"

"Not that many people know this. Optimus told me just in case so if Starscream pulled something and we needed back up, I could go through the proper channels and warn someone who had access to the codes to call for backup. As I know it, only a few really trusted Autobots have this information. I'm not on the list, but everyone who is lives in Metroplex. They've logged into systems attached to him every single time."

"So you can get the codes. Will Metroplex allow it if it's a secret?"

"He just told me exactly why I need those codes, and if it needs a bit of hacking, well this isn't the first time we've bent the rules."

She grinned up at the screen, already seeing Metroplex working to start the process to access the information she needed. It would take a couple cycles to write up a code to hack the systems to even get started, but this was perfect. She could still use the orbs to distract Starscream, and excuse to get close to him, but this. This is what would really help her.

"Just why in the world do we need access to the Lost Light?" Chromia asked. "What's on that ship that's so important to what is happening here? It's not like they can really help us."

"Not all of them, no. I'm talking about Nautica. If I can get in contact with her in secret, she can start sniffing around for me," Windblade explained to her. "With luck, she can get me in contact with Megatron."

"Megatron! Okay, hold it! Why would you want to talk to him?!" the other femme cried out. "Isn't Starscream bad enough to try to get tangled up with as it is?"

Normally Windblade would agree with her. She hadn't had any desire to approach the mech when Waspinator had mentioned him, and to be honest she didn't much look forward to it now. She was going to try it anyway though.

"Starscream and Megatron. Megatron and Starscream. We don't know much about the history of the war, after all we have our own issues to worry about, but even I've noticed those two are almost always mentioned together. Don't you think that's strange?" she asked.

"Wasn't Starscream Megatron's second-in-command? Of course they'd be involved in a lot of the same things," Chromia reasoned.

"For four million solar cycles, all while trying to kill one another?" Windblade asked as she typed in a few more keys on the keyboard. Her grin widened suddenly as numbers began to appear on the screen and she quickly typed them into her datapad. Her look was almost maniacal as a plan began to form in her mind about what she should do. "No, there is much more to this."

She killed the power to the computer screen once she was finished setting the parameters to the coding. Metroplex could write out the rest faster than she could. She'd have to access a different computer to do the hacking, and then others as well when she made the calls she'd need to, so she couldn't she couldn't be traced by anyone here on Cybertron. No one could know she had contact yet, especially Starscream. It would all be very complicated, but more than worth it.

"I wanted to know more about Starscream, to know just what could make him tick and if he was worth working with or not," she said as she tucked her datapad away. "Now I can know anything I want about him. After all, who better to know just how to dance around that complex bot than his own Conjux Endura?"

End of Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, yeah I went there. I always said Megatron and Starscream were married. IDW just gave me a canon term to slap onto it.


	5. Welcome to the Team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I posted this chapter I went through the previous ones to fix up the mistakes in them. Going through and rereading, I saw there were quite a few little spelling typos and some mistakes on the Transformer terminology that I'd used. Writing without a beta is never a good idea, and with luck I'll convince a friend of mine to help me out. Until then, I'll try to be more careful before I post. I'm not good at catching my own mistakes with a rereading on the raw format so that's why it's been less than top quality.
> 
> In any case, here's the next chapter. Some Windblade scheming and being sweet to Waspinator, which is always a bit of good fun. For some reason I grinned a lot when I wrote this out. As always though, only this idea is mine. Transformers doesn't belong to me.

Chapter 5: Welcome to the Team

Windblade had known almost her entire existence that she wanted to be a Cityspeaker. It was a calling, she supposed. Nothing dramatic or religious had pulled her to it though. No moving experience that couldn't be explained or deep, supernatural calling had helped her make the decision.

She had just wanted to help the great titan that had given her life. Caminus had done so much for her and everyone else. Giving back to him only seemed right and natural. So she'd studied, trained, learned and given herself to the Way of the Flame. She hadn't agreed with all the doctrine, but she'd been respectful, never spoken out of turn, and while not as devoted as some, she'd still believed and cared enough about her fellow transformers that the church had been a good fit for her. The first time she'd been allowed to approach Caminus and introduce herself had been like a dream, a grand ceremony in place that had been followed by long rituals and contemplation. It had been the most important moment in her life, and all the solar cycles it had taken to learn everything she knew about titans and their inner workings had been rewarded.

However, despite all of that she was not experienced with everything a machine could do, even one connected to a Metrotitan. She certainly was not a top hacker or anything. It was most certainly out of her skill set.

Metroplex had helped her a great deal already, writing a program for her in order to get the information she would need to contact the Lost Light. The program itself had been the easy step. Her hope that it would only take a couple of cycles to use it to get the codes had been a great overestimation of her talents.

After all, she could work in the mind of a Metrotitan easily. Their thoughts and coding were laid bare to her and while at times the meaning were confusing, it was no trouble knowing what was being said.

However, it didn't mean she was gifted with all electronics. The systems being used here were not part of Metroplex. The computers, datapads, and systems were all connected to him now but they were not a natural part of him. He could not give her the information directly, it all too guarded and protected. After all, getting in contact with a ship that held Megatron would be classified information. It couldn't end up with someone who had ill intentions.

Windblade felt her goals were pure and wouldn't hurt anyone, but perhaps it had led her to think breaking into the systems and getting this information would be easier than it should have been.

She tapped harshly at the keys and tried to get the program to break through the last line of defense on the network. She just needed enough time to get a copy of the codes and she'd be on her way.

"He's going to come back soon," Chromia hissed from where she was the lookout only a few feet away. She looked tense, more so than usual. Spying really wasn't her line of work after all, but Windblade appreciated her company all the same.

The Cityspeaker took it as a very good sign she could honestly say that now.

"Swindle won't bother us," Windblade assured. She could not have risked using a computer at home or with Metroplex without causing alarm if she'd gotten caught. It would be only too obvious she or one of her friends would have been the one to attempt to steal classified information. She'd considered borrowing a computer at Blurr's, but it was still too risky. Lots of bots knew she was friends with the bartender and she honestly didn't want to get him in trouble either if she got caught. Swindle had been the safe bet then. He had plenty of shady business anyway and had been all to happy to allow her to work on one of his computers. This being traced back to her wasn't likely.

"I got this one recently too," he'd informed her when she'd said she'd wanted to borrow some time on one. "Fell off a truck-bot, needed a home. I thought I got a good deal when I took it off the mech's hands who happened to stumble upon it."

In other words it had been stolen. She might have felt guilty for helping along crime in her city, that whole compromising morality thing again, but she really needed this to be untraceable back to her, at least for the time being. Swindle had agreed to let her borrow if for a price, not ask what was going on for a small attached fee and would even wipe it all clean for her afterward so no one would know what was done on it. Chromia had insisted to stick around and watch it get wiped to make sure Swindle wouldn't look at the information himself before doing so.

"You said two cycles," Chromia stated, keeping an eye on the hall that would lead to the back where they were working. "It's been almost three now, and that's all the time you paid for. He's going to come back and demand more money or try to catch a peek."

"I'm almost done… I think," Windblade replied. "I wish Nautica were here. She could have done this so much better."

"If she were, you wouldn't need the codes in the first place," Chromia reminded before she tensed. "Windblade, I just heard something."

"What?"

"Someone came into the shop," she said.

Not a good sign. Windblade had paid well for top privacy. No one should have even entered until she was done. If Swindle was letting someone in it was because he had no choice. She immediately worried about it being the Badgeless or some other authority. Had she'd been caught already?

"Should I check it out?" Chromia asked.

"No," she quickly answered. "You can't be seen here. Neither of us can. Just… listen at the end of the hall. If it seems like we'll get caught then we run for it."  
Not the soundest of plans but she was feeling the pressure now. The codes were almost hers. If she could just get past this last obnoxious lock!

She typed a bit faster as Chromia inched along the wall to listen. The Cityspeaker was too distracted to catch anything that was said, but the distinct sound of voices were audible to her.

So was buzzing and clicking.

"Waspinator?" she asked as she suddenly looked up from her work. Sadly it was all the time needed for the computer to suddenly flash red and data to start disappear right in front of her optics. "NO! No, no, no, no!"

She practically banged her servos on the keyboard for as hard as she was trying to save herself. Damn it! The program was getting eaten alive by the defenses! She'd been so close!

"What is it?! What did you do?" Chromia asked, rushing to her side.

"I don't know! I looked away for a second and it just started doing this!" she cried out. "It's locked me out, and it's destroying the hacking program. The firewall is literally eating it!"

"I thought you already got past the firewall!"

"I thought so too! I should have slipped in through the backdoor! Maybe there was another one in place or something!"

Windblade should have known with all the sudden panic they were making too much noise, noise that would attract attention. Sure enough, the door at the end of the hall opened up, Swindle and Waspinator at the entrance.

"Just what is going on here?!" Swindle demanded. "Waspinator, you get out of here! I already told you I wouldn't accept those pieces of junk as payment!"

"Windbladezz?" Waspinator asked, not seeming to pay the former 'Con much attention for once. He quickly came over, Windblade was sure from the sign of her distress. She didn't even have a chance to greet him before he happened to see the computer. "Move over."

He nudged her gently and she leaped up from the chair to let him sit down. It was a reflex, not even sure what he was going to do until he started to type at the computer.

"Waspinator? What are you doing?"

"Shhhh. Working. Give Wazzpinator a nanokilk or two," he said. Unlike her frantic banging on the keyboard, his movements were smooth and quick, a methodical typing of keys in precise order. After a few moments the screen went from red back to the black and green it should have been. A few more minutes and the final lock slid open, finally allowing Windblade into the system.

"H-how did you do that?" she asked in shock.

"Wazzpinator spent much time on security duty in middle of war," he said brightly with a bit of a smile. "Wazzz always hacking or blocking hacking. Like video game. Tonzzz of fun."

"Wow. That's… that's so impressive," she said in awe. Waspinator always played himself off as kind of dim, but she supposed he was the sort of guy who would know how to get in and out of things unnoticed. Maybe that applied to computers too. "Thank you."

"So what's going on here anyway?" Swindle asked suspiciously as he tried to look over the insectoid's shoulder.

"I got a better question," Chromia growled as she grabbed him and started to push him out of the room. "Why'd you let someone in when we paid you not to?"

"He forced his way in. He was begging, that's all! I was trying to shoo him off when all the shouting happened!"

"Guess we should get a refund then since you couldn't uphold your end of the bargain."

"Now wait a minute!"

The door slammed shut after that and Windblade was happy for her bodyguard's quick thinking. Making Swindle concerned over his cut was a good distraction to say the least.

"I had better get what I need and go," she mused before smiling at Waspinator. "Thanks again for your help. What are you doing here?"

When the bot stood she nearly recoiled in horror. She hadn't seen before since she'd been too distracted by what she'd been doing, and then the damage being hidden by his hunched form over the computer, but he was a mess! Hie entire left side of his arm was scratched and spotted with spilled energon, the way it looked as if it had oozed everywhere it was no doubt his own. Both his legs seemed twisted at odd angles and she could tell easily the way he favored his left one that the right was broken in several places. His wings looked to be in the worst repair, one of them torn badly and only still barely attached by a few inches left from a long rip while the frame of the other side was crumpled up in several places. The leg attachments on his right arm for his alt form just underneath were bent in several places and one looked at if it had been snapped off! On top of that the black screen just under his pincers was cracked and there was no light on underneath, the purple line that would be his mouth fizzling out at random moments. She couldn't even imagine the pain he had to be in.

"Waspinator! What happened to you?!" she exclaimed. "Are you okay?! Who did this to you?!"

He fidgeted a little uncomfortably and didn't look at her when he spoke. Now that she was paying attention, she could hear a faint sound of broken static underneath the normal soft buzz of his voice. While it didn't sound completely broken it still made her cringe.

"Overcharged botzzz from last night," he explained quietly. "Caught Wazzpinator. Need repairzzz. Hoped to barter with Swindle. Brought trade… but..."

He pulled out a few items from a small compartment in his arm, broken plugs, some wires, bits of scraps of metal. Garbage, all of it. He had to have scrounged to get this little and it made her spark ache.

"Swindle won't take," he said. "Wazzpinator will need to go elsewhere. Will-"

"I'll repair you," she said immediately. She was no medic but there was no way she'd allow this… this barbarism to happen to him and not help. At the very least she could clean him up and take care of part of the damages. His voice and wings were beyond her. That would need a bot who knew what he was doing, but it would all cost money he didn't have. She had to fix what she could to help him so he wouldn't be begging for money to take care of everything.

"Windbladezz doezzz not need to-"

"Don't argue. I'm helping you," she said softly but sternly. "You think I could see you like this and not do anything? I can't believe those brutes did this to you. Over some stolen energon? That's so sick and slimey!"

"Windbladezzz… Wazzpinator izzz grateful," he said slowly before he nodded. "Thankzzz."

"Just let me finish this and we'll get going," she said as she moved over to the computer. It didn't take long to find what she needed, knowing basically what she was looking for. Hoping she couldn't be tracked, she copied the codes she needed and exited out of her work. She'd have Chromia make sure Swindle finished their deal, but right now she was more worried about the bot in front of her than getting caught. It still made her insides burn at the thought of anyone hurting Waspinator like this for any reason, much less some simple stolen drinks. What was wrong with them?

"Wazzpinator doezzz not have way to pay back," he quickly reminded her as they left the back of the shop together. She nodded to Chromia, still arguing with Swindle over price before her bodyguard yanked the greedy bot back to the computer to clean up all traces of Windblade's activities.

"Don't worry about that," she said with a firm shake of her helm. "I'm not going to charge you for something like that. It's basic compassion. Though…. I won't be able to repair everything. I'm no medic after all. Working on a Metrotitan is easy. All of their parts are huge. Your pieces will be a lot more delicate than what I'll be able to manage."

"Wazzpinator could pay back… overtime… probably," he sighed as his shoulders sagged. "Hopefullly."

"I'm not all that worried about it," she said before something dawned on her. "Waspinator, what is your source of income anyway?"

"Selling to Swindle," he answered.

"Gee. No wonder you're so broke," she muttered dryly. "Look, I have an idea. How about this? Would you like to work for me?"

"What? Work for Metroplex lady?" he buzzed out. "Doing what? Wazzpinator not good at much."

"I need someone who is talented into getting into places unseen," she said. "I'm… information gathering if you will. Too complicated to explain here, but I won't ask you to do anything dangerous, at least not more so than what you already handle on a regular basis. I can't pay much. It'll come out of my budget for the running of the city so I can only afford to give you fifty Shanix a week. I know it's not much but-"

Waspinator's eyes were already glittering though and he quickly nodded.

"Wazzpinator accepts! Wazzpinator has never had such riches before!"

Riches? That would barely pay his expenses, wouldn't it? She didn't think she could feel more badly for him if she tried.

"Well then, you're hired," she said. "Included in the… uh… benefits package is of course a living area and energon for your consumption needs."

Windblade hoped that at least would make up for the small pay, though he looked so enthusiastic it was like she was offering him a fortune. Honestly though, most of it was coming out of her own money so there was only so much to offer. When she'd first reached Cybertron and had been asked to take care of Metroplex while the bots lived in him by Optimus Prime, Starscream had immediately approached her and informed her she would be receiving an official position within the new government and that would mean a salary and benefits. She'd tried to refuse the offer, feeling it was only right she help where she was needed before he'd explained to her such a position would be revered and to not pay her for her work would be a great dishonor to him. She'd immediately accepted, unable to bear the thought of stomping on one of their traditions before realizing later how full of it Starscream actually was. In retrospect, he'd only done it so she would be directly under him, technically working for him. It had been nothing but a leash to justify trying to control her and she'd fallen for it.

So now she just used it as the budget, her needs small enough she didn't need to use most of it on herself or Chromia, instead spending it to buy parts for Metroplex and fix him up. It helped her feel less like she'd been politically trapped by the ruler of Cybertron, at least a little.

"He's done in there," Chromia said as she came out of the backroom. "I think we should get out of here before he tries to think of something else to charge us for. I swear if we had to breathe he'd want us to pay for the atmosphere."

"Don't give him any ideas," Windblade said with a smile before turning back to Waspinator. "Are you ready to go?"

"Go? He's coming with us?" Chromia asked.

"I just hired him," she explained.

"Hired him?! For what?!" her bodyguard cried out.

"Shhhh! Calm down. You keep freaking out so much, you're going to make something short out," the Cityspeaker said soothingly. "I'll explain when we get back home. Let's just say he'll be able to help us out with my plans. His talents could really come in handy after all."

The blue bot looked at Waspinator in his broken state as he shrunk back a bit and raised an optic ridge.

"My spark is going to go out from all this," she grumbled before throwing up her servos. "Fine. Fine. Let's just get home. If you want him along for the ride then I won't argue about it."

"Right. Come along, Waspinator. We'll have you repaired before you know it," she said as she slipped her servo into his, her digits slipping in between his claws and gently pulling along. He seemed to hesitate for only a moment before he went along with her. With his skittish nature she was used to him doing such things, but it was reassuring when his claws tightened a little around her and he followed along at a brisk pace.

"He's going to need to see a medic," Chromia noted as she looked over at him. "Was he like this last night?"

"No. A bunch of bots beat on him," Windblade explained.

"Ugh. This planet just gets more and more charming, doesn't it?" her bodyguard muttered. "Any reason why they jumped him or was it just the Cybertronians' sunny dispositions at work again."

"Wazzpinator sipped a bit from drink belonging to botzzz," he explained. "Wazzz probably bad idea."

"Yeah, no kidding. By all the Primes, are you always so pathetic?"

"Chromia!" Windblade cried. "Don't say things like that!"

"It's not personal, just an observation," Chromia insisted. "Look, he's a mess and he always seems to be in some kind of trouble. If he's going to be working for you, I just want to know if that trouble is going to spill onto you or not. After all, you seem to make more than enough on your own every since coming here. I'm sensing a pattern and I don't want another starting to form because of the bug."

"Wazzpinator not try to make trouble. Universe just mean spirited," he explained. "Izzz probably plotting way to stomp on poor Wazzpinator as we speak."  
"The… universe?" the bodyguard asked in confusion. "Waspinator, what are you talking about?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. "If talk about it, universe will only get mad no doubt. Keep theoriezzz about it quiet. No senzzze to spread around."

Windblade and Chromia exchanged a look before the Cityspeaker just shrugged in confusion. Chromia rolled her optics and Windblade could only guess she didn't care enough to try and figure out what the insectoid was talking about.

"In any case, that still doesn't appease me very much," she stated. "Do you even know how to fight?"

"Of course Wazzpinator knowzzz how to fight."

"Not very well then," she sighed. "Okay, look. If you're going to be a part of this little band, you're going to be responsible for Windblade too. Last thing I need is her getting injured over you. You can't even defend yourself. How can I expect you to help defend Windblade? Starting as soon as you're repaired, you're going to have training with me. Sixth hour in the morning, every morning, no if's and's or but's."

"But-"

"No."

"But what if-"

"No."

"Couldn't Wazzpinator just-"

"No," she repeated a little louder this time to shut him up.

"Weapons training?" Windblade asked, a little shocked. "Really?"

"Well, I think we should start with some basics. Up close stuff, servo-to-servo and things like that," she answered. "At the very least I need to teach him how to go with a punch. It looks like someone put him through a jet engine. We'll move on to weapons when I'm sure I won't accidentally kill him just sparring with him. After all… you want him around, right?"

"Yeah, I do," she replied with a nod.

"Then he's going to need to learn how to fight better than what he can manage right now," she stated. "I'm not about to let you get into any trouble to due to his incompetence. I'm going to ride him into the ground until I know he's not going to get you killed. You got that, bug?"

"Wazzpinator got it!" he said quickly, flinching a bit when Chromia glared at him.

"Good," she muttered before glancing away. "Now come on."

Despite the gruff response Chromia had given though, Windblade found herself smiling a little bit. While she was sure her bodyguard would not admit it, she was reaching out a lot to do this. Letting someone else she didn't know well or trust at all near her charge, not to mention offering to help him learn how to fight so as to be able to take better care of himself, it wasn't for his benefit. Chromia was doing it for her, even as much as she clearly didn't think much of the idea of letting him stick around. She really was making an effort to appease Windblade, maybe make amends.

"Chromia… Thank you," she said softly. For a moment she wasn't sure the other femme had heard it, but then Chromia just shrugged and the faintest trace of a smile graces her faceplate.

"You know what, Waspinator?" she asked him with a big grin. "I have a feeling that this is going to work out great."

"Will lady bot hurt Wazzpinator?" he asked.

"Only until you learn how to dodge," Chromia replied flippantly.

"Nnnnn..."

"Oh come on, you two. Play nice," Windblade said, though it was cheerful instead of reprimanding. All of a sudden she was in a great mood. For the first time in several days, the Cityspeaker felt truly at peace with her friend. It made her especially happy that she'd asked Waspinator along now. Even if nothing else came from this partnership, she'd be eternally grateful to the bot for helping with that.

End of Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It felt really good to write an upbeat chapter, especially after the last one had so many sad parts to it. Despite this being a drama, I'd like to keep it from getting depressing. Luckily Waspinator is one of those characters that can always make the scene a little more lighthearted, even when things aren't going great. It's just the little guy's charm.
> 
> Next chapter will get the plot moving along a little faster, and focus more on Starscream. I'm already working on that chapter so it should be out before too long.


End file.
